EVERYBODY LOVES SAMMY HAGAR

Here’s an interesting excerpt from a recent interview with Sammy Hagar that was conducted by Forbes, your leading source for rock and metal news:

“I was asked at one time to be in Mötley Crüe. I was asked at one time to be in Pantera by their mangers. I was asked to be in Velvet Revolver when Scott Weiland quit and went back to the Stone Temple Pilots. I was waiting to be asked to be in Led Zeppelin to say no, since they were the greatest band on earth and no could replace Robert Plant. I was asked to be in Aerosmith and I said no. Certain bands and certain front man singers are more difficult to replace than others. Steven Tyler and that band have stayed together for forty years and you don’t to walk into something like that. They had one moment years ago, when they replaced Joe Smith, but it’s still always been Steven at the front of Aerosmith. You don’t replace that. When I came into Van Halen, it was easy because Dave wasn’t a great singer, but he was a good front man. In those times, I was selling out the same arena’s they were so it was like the combination of two forces and it worked but it’s a rare thing. We were all lucky that the fans accepted it and it got bigger. I would avoid bands that are going to break up pretty soon.”

Presumably he was asked to join the Crüe after Vince Neil quit or was fired (almost twenty years later, and that issue still hasn’t been resolved… although as Justin Foley put it, “It’s hard to believe that Vince Neil quit”), although no one makes any mention of that in The Dirt, and he would have still been in Van Halen at that point, so who the fuck knows; obviously, Aerosmith would have approached Hagar last year, when it looked like Steven Tyler was on his way out of the band. And I guess Velvet Revolver decided “Fuck the youth market,” because while I have no doubt that there would have been interest in a Hagar-led VR, I also have no doubt that most of that interest would have come from people over the age of forty.

I think the real question is — assuming Sammy is being 100% truthful about this, and didn’t just have memories of these offers implanted by aliens — “Why would so many bands want Sammy Hagar?” I’m not even knocking the guy — clearly, the Sideshow Bob of metal is a talented singer and songwriter. But I don’t personally see him as being so fantastic that it makes sense for every mainstream hard rock band to try and woo him. Is it because he’s one of those oh-so-rare instances of someone replacing an infamous singer and managing to not completely blow it? If so, why would anyone assume that magic would strike twice? It’s unlikely that Hagar would be able to successfully step in for David Lee Roth and then, fifteen to thirty years later, do it AGAIN for Vince Neil, or Steven Tyler, or Scott Weiland.

Of course, there’s no real answer to my rhetorical query… I just felt like pondering out loud.